Space/Science — HabitableZone

Space/Science » in reply to re: Speaking of good Sci-Fi

2010 and diamond cores
Gary — (archived)

A gee-whiz thing about Clark's "2010" (not Clark's best IMHO): Clark speculated that Jupiter had an emormous diamond for its core (carbon + heat + extreme pressure = diamond). I ran across a carbon pressure-temperature phase diagram that had the Jupiter adiabat superimposed upon it. The URL below leads to the PostScript copy of the paper:
http://www.physics.uiuc.edu/research/ElectronicStructure/PAPERS/gru96a/abstract.html

The adiabat goes from the graphite to liquid carbon domains but never goes into the diamond domain of the phase diagram. The pressure and temperature combinations that lead to diamonds NEVER occurs on Jupiter (either too hot or not enough pressure at the right temperature). This same diagram also showed the terrestrial adiabat to be centered in the diamond domain. There is almost certainly lots of really nice sized diamonds deep in the Earth's crust and mantle. It is widely believed the core of Jupiter is made of metallic hydrogen. It is this metallic hydrogen that drives Jupiter's magneto and intense radiation belts.

Gary

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